Employee Ownership Blog

The Work Act, which would create a major federal program to provide funding and support for state-level outreach and technical assistance for employee ownership, has been incorporated in the proposed RISE and SHINE Act.

The NCEO just completed a large grant-funded project examining whether and how employee ownership affected companies and employees in the U.S. food system during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest HMOs, announced that it will be encouraging its 37,000 vendors to become employee-owned.

A new study, “Contribution of S ESOPs to Participants’ Retirement Security and Employee-Owner Benefits,” prepared for the Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (

A new law in Maine, LD 1969, directs the Maine Public Utilities Commission to require that any renewable energy project in the state receiving $50,000 or more in state funding to meet certain labor standards, including paying prevailing wages.

By a 29-21 party-line vote, the House Education and Labor Committee has passed H.R. 7310, the Protecting America’s Retirement Security Act. The bill now will go to the full House. There is no current Senate companion bill. The bill contains a handful of provisions, most notably requirements for fee disclosure in retirement plans, the creation of a federal personal finance education portal, increased requirements for spousal consent requirements in defined contribution plans, and making automatic deferrals to a 401(k) plan continue by default unless an affirmative action to end them is made.

Ownership Works is a new nonprofit funded by $50 million in donations from Pete Stavros, a partner at the investment firm KKR, and 60 other organizations.

On March 29, the House passed the SECURE 2.0 Act (H.R. 2954), which makes two minor improvements for ESOPs plus other changes aimed at making it easier for employers and employees to assure retirement plans work more effectively. Some of these will affect ESOPs.

Victor Aspengren has succeeded Mary Boettcher as the chair of the NCEO's board of directors.

On March 8, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed new rules for prohibited transaction exemption (PTE) filings, rules that have raised concerns in the ESOP community. These filings are relatively rare, with about 20 per year. While ESOPs are statutorily exempt from having to make these filings, some ESOP professionals are concerned the DOL might subsequently extend the concepts in the proposal to ESOPs.

In what would be the most significant step forward by a state yet, Senator Josh Becker introduced the Expanding Employee Ownership Act, which would provide outreach, financing, and technical assistance for conversions to employee ownership.

HF 3733, a bill to help build community wealth in Minnesota, would create a low-interest loan program to support employee ownership, community land trusts, or cooperatives focused on providing wealth-building opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups, including people of color, women, disabled veterans, and low-income workers.